How To Identify An Incompetent Trainer

How many of you have ever hired a trainer and were put on a lazy diet such as chicken, fish, vegetables and nothing but water, and was told to eat all of this without an actual calorie count to go by? You did hours of cardio and made sacrifices to try and get in better health and be happier with your appearance. You eventually gave up because you weighed out the options and sided with the reason it’s easier to be unhealthy and enjoy foods than to starve yourself with the same lame diet everyday while doing endless amounts of cardio. Yes, this does happen and it happens a little too often. The whole reason I’m sitting down to write this article is to help you identify a bad trainer. I want you all to stop wasting your money on idiotic diet plans and ridiculous workout routines. I want to help you all have the life and body you’ve always wanted. So I’ll breakdown the basics of what a so-called “trainer” would have you do, then I’ll tell you the truth on each topic.

Clean Eating.
Their belief is clean eating is the only way to lose weight. This is what I refer to as the “lazy diet”. They won’t even break down your diet protocol into daily calories, protein, carbohydrates and fats, mainly because they don’t know how, so they’ll say clean eating is the only way to go. I’ve heard many trainers actually say that you can eat as much as you want and you won’t gain weight just as long as it’s all clean food. The typical diet would be grilled chicken breast or fish, vegetables with every meal and egg whites (to avoid bad cholesterol)

So What’s The Truth?
Clean eating is doing nothing more than cutting calories. For instance if your typical lunch consisted of a cheeseburger and French fries, then you’re taking in approximately 1300-1500 calories. This is just lunch. Now let’s substitute your typical lunch with a “clean meal” 10oz of grilled chicken breast and a serving of vegetables. Your lunch will now consist of 360 calories. That’s cutting 940 to 1140 calories. You do this with about every meal and you’re looking at a major calorie difference. This is why so many people are misled by the whole clean eating myth. A calorie is a calorie no matter where it comes from. So if you’re cutting protocol is 2300 calories and you’re taking in 2300 calories of foods like a cheeseburger and French fries, then you will lose weight. If you’re cutting protocol is 2300 calories and you’re taking in 2800 calories of clean foods such as chicken breast and vegetables, then you will gain weight.

As for the whole egg white theory- the yolk does not contain cholesterol. Of course only people who are stuck in the 90’s still believe this to be the case. The truth is the yolk is very healthy for you and has been proven to lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. So the only reason anyone should be eating egg whites is if they are trying to cut calories.

So when it comes to weight loss, you can eat whatever you want when you want just as long as you’re burning off more calories than you’re taking in. Just ask Michael Herb of Kansas State University who lost 25lbs in 3 months eating junk foods otherwise known as the convenient store diet.

You Have To Do Cardio.
I don’t know one trainer who doesn’t put their client on the treadmill at least 3 times a week. I’d say more than half of them jump to this method because they absolutely have no idea how to calculate a cutting diet. Therefore they design your fitness program around some form of a cardio routine. Trainers who put clients on this type of program truly believe this is the only way you can lose weight and to especially shred down to the lower percentages of body fat like 5-8% for men and 10-15% for women.

So What’s The Truth?
It is true that cardio can help with weight loss, but it’s not necessary. The only good thing about cardio is you can eat a little more food. So let me explain why it’s not needed for weight loss and how you can eat more food. For example if your cutting diet is 2200 calories a day and you do 2 hours of cardio, within those 2 hours you’re roughly burning 200 calories. That puts your total calorie intake on the day at 2000 calories putting you 700 calories in the deficit instead of the typical 500 that is required for weight loss. Now if you don’t want to do cardio, it’s really simple. Just take in 2000 calories and you get the same results for weight loss.

Now why you can eat more when doing cardio?
As I said before you burn approximately 200 calories. So now you can eat an extra 200 calories on the day and still be right on your cutting protocol of 2200 calories.

You Can Only Drink Water.
Trainers go off of this because they believe 1) Water is the only form of hydration and 2) They believe the human body is made up of 98% water so it must be that important. So with that they tell you that’s all you can drink to be healthy and build muscle. They go this route because most of the trainers also believe that artificial sweeteners are bad for you, causing cancer and cause weight gain. It’s also their belief that carbonation pulls calcium from your bones. So, of course, if you believe all of this, then water is naturally the safest choice.

So What’s The Truth?Water is not the only form of hydration. Sodas, coffee, milk,fruit juices have all been clinically proven to be a hydrating liquid. In fact, they have all been proven to be just as hydrating as water. As I mentioned, the common belief is caffeine dehydrates you, but studies have shown this to be false. As for the theory carbonation pulls calcium from your bones; well this has never been proven. Our bodies are not made up of 98% water. The truth is the human body is approximately 50-75% water. The body percentage in an infant is much higher and is typically around 75-78%, dropping to 65% by one year of age.

As for diet drinks and artificial sweeteners causing cancer and weight gain, this is just absurd. Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners do not cause cancer or any other health problems. As for the weight gain, the reason why people think this is because a study has shown that artificial sweeteners enhance your craving for real sugar, so you gorge on sweets. So that falls on you for being weak. You can’t fight the temptation of sweets, so you overeat. So why not blame it on the artificial sweeteners and not you. I, for one, do not need artificial sweeteners to make me crave sweets. All I need to crave sweets are few days of cutting and a good Reese’s commercial.

You have to eat multiple meals a day
Their reasoning for this is so your metabolism stays running high throughout the day helping you burn fat. Most also will tell you this will keep feeding your muscles for better development.

So What’s The Truth?
Eating small meals throughout the day does not keep your metabolism running at a high rate. Small intakes of food gives your metabolism a small boost. But taking in large meals gives your metabolism a large boost. So at the end of the day your metabolism evens out– regardless if it’s 8 meals a day, 3 , or even one. Eating throughout the day also does not feed your muscles. Your body works off a daily nutritional intake. So you can take in your nutrition throughout the day or all at once just as long as you hit your daily requirements.
However, there are benefits of eating small meals throughout the day as it does help with hunger. Most people cannot control themselves when they are hungry, so they tend to overeat. So eating small meals consisting of higher protein intake will keep you from getting hungrier therefore keeping you from stuffing yourself at dinner. If you have control and skip every meal except dinner, but you just take in your daily requirements; then you’ll be fine. And no, skipping a meal does not put you in starvation mode. It takes 72 hours of not eating or being 50% of your BMR to go into starvation mode. To read more about that click here.

Don’t Eat 2 Hours Before You Go To Bed.
Their belief behind this is your body will not be in motion to burn the calories that you have just consumed. You may get a few other trainers who will say how eating carbohydrates will spike your insulin levels, which is true but they claim doing this before you go to sleep will lead to weight gain.

So What’s The Truth?
As I said, it is true that you will spike your insulin levels but this will not lead to weight gain. It doesn’t matter if you take in your entire daily cutting calorie protocol right before you go to sleep; you would still lose weight. So to put it in other words, if you have a cutting diet of 2,000 calories a day and you ate them all right before you went to sleep, you would lose weight. If you ate 2,500 calories first thing in the morning and didn’t eat for the rest of the day, you would gain weight. Again. It’s not what you eat or when you eat… it’s how much you eat.

Not Knowing The Difference in Myofibrillar and Sarcoplasmic.
Many trainers (I’d say about 99% of them) would train a woman at high reps. Their theory in this is for the woman to build great definition without a lot of size. They would train a man around the reps of 8-10 but also throw in a few of the really high rep range of 25 to even 50 reps. They do this for the same results of great definition.

So What’s The Truth?
The truth is you’re not doing much of anything but burning calories when you do more than 15 reps. You’re basically doing a form of cardio but with weights. You’re building endurance…nothing else. To build definition you need 2 things- lower body fat and lower reps. The myofibrillar, which is 4-7 reps, will give you great definition and amazing strength but not much size. This is a good rep range for women who want to tone up and avoid getting big. Men who are new to weight lifting will get size in the myofibrillar range. This is known as the “newbie gains”. After about a year of lifting, those newbie gains will come to an end and you will only get strength. This is why this rep set is not good for men in the long haul who are looking to add size.
The sarcoplasmic rep range is between 8-15. This rep range will give you a lot of size but very little strength. This is the most popular rep range for men such as bodybuilders who are looking for great size. Women can benefit from this rep range, as well, but keep in mind that women cannot get big. Women simply do not have the testosterone in their bodies to add extreme amounts of muscle. Women also have a high level of estrogen that creates a hormonal environment that makes it difficult for adding a lot of mass. So you would have to work hard for years, training with heavy weights to build a considerable amount of muscle. To read more about muscle development and the benefits of both myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic click here.

Spot Reduction
Trainers mainly use this method on the mid-section believing that doing core training will help tone and shape your stomach helping you speed up the progress of weight loss. Other popular muscle groups they like to try and spot reduce are the triceps (baggy arms) and a saggy buttock.

So What’s The Truth?
There is no such thing as spot reduction. How I like to explain this to my clients is I ask them a simple question. How many overweight men or women have you seen with a double chin, back fat and wide hips but sporting a ripped 6 pack? The answer is always “none” and with good reason. The only way to tone a mid-section or any other body part is by a proper diet, weight training, and patience.

You Have To Stretch.
Trainers tell you to stretch before your workout to loosen up to help prevent injury. They also advise to stretch after working out to help with muscle soreness. It’s especially advised before you go for a good run or do any kind of cardio.

My Conclusion
I hope whoever reads this article will take it into consideration when you hire a trainer. People come to trainers lost and confused on how to lose weight and get in shape. Most people do it to look better but some, and most importantly, do it for better health. So to get the runaround while being charged $50 to even $70 an hour is robbery. Have a few bad trainers left you lost and feeling hopeless? Have you ever had a trainer convince you that your metabolism isn’t working properly because of your age or it’s your genetics? None of those reasons is backed by any truth. It’s sad that a trainer will place the blame on a client for their awful training methods. So to anyone who has had a trainer before and experienced this- please don’t give up. You can have the body you’ve always wanted. You can lose weight and you can do this easily without making huge sacrifices. You just need a good trainer.